The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences may have their origins in self-congratulatory PR (and, if you dig deeper, union-busting) but, by and large, it does a reasonably good job of providing a signal boost for quality films. Brooklyn isn’t going to win anything this year — but more people are going to know about that modest little story of an Irish immigrant making her way to America as a result of this year’s broadcast. Maybe they’ll give it a stream some night and enjoy a worthwhile drama that would have otherwise been forgotten. See? The Bataan Death March of “awards season” press events may have been worth it after all.

But the organization is far from infallible. This is a relatively small group of industry insiders who skew to a particular demographic, and they make mistakes. Many of cinema’s true masters have never won the award they deserved. Alfred Hitchcock never took home an Oscar for directing; neither did Stanley Kubrick. (Hitch got a lifetime achievement, however, and Stanley won for the special effects in 2001: A Space Odyssey.) Don’t bellyache for Brad Pitt ignored as a thespian – he’s got his trophy for producing 12 Years a Slave.

But what about those worthy film artists who never got anything — not even a category curveball or the end-of-career salute? Who will recognize the Hollywood greats standing in the shadow of the Full Oscar Diss? Many of them still have a shot, while some have already left this mortal coil, forever denied access to that Great Luncheon in the Sky.

So let’s commiserate with the tragically, perpetually Oscar-Denied. We list them in alphabetical order, because why shame them any more with a countdown?

Richard Burton

A bona fide Hollywood leading man, the Welsh-born Shakespearean was well-suited for period pictures and historical epics. yes, it's easy to now chuckle at bloated Biblical epics like Cleopatra and The Robe, but the baritone-voiced Burton always sold it. His frequent appearances in gossip columns may have prevented him from being taken seriously as an actor, or maybe he just ticked a lot of important people off. He's one of the few household names from mid-20th century movies to not even have an honorary statue.

Nominations: Six for Best Actor (The Robe, Becket, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Anne of the Thousand Days) and one for Best Supporting Actor (My Cousin Rachel).Should Have Won For:The Night of The IguanaMaybe This Is All Punishment For:Exorcist II: The Heretic.

Tim Burton

Tim Burton is undeniably a visionary director, animator and wizard of weirdness whose mere name conjures a very specific aesthetic. Yet his shelves remain empty of any acknowledgement from the Academy. Does our voting body not like the mix of mirth and the macabre, or are we just waiting for right project? Seems like it should have happened by now.

Nominations: Two for Best Animated Feature (Corpse Bride, Frankenweenie).Should Have Won For:Ed Wood.Maybe This Is All Punishment For: That revisionist, darkness du jour version of Alice in Wonderland.

Glenn Close

She's played everything from the best prevention against extramarital affairs (Fatal Attraction) to a goofy interstellar police chief (Guardians of the Galaxy), and always brings a touch of class and energy to whatever she does — even if she's comatose most of the time, as in Reversal of Fortune. Glenn is closing in on 80 acting credits, including five seasons on FX's Damages. We're well past the point of some recognition.

Nominations: Three for Best Actress (Fatal Attraction, Dangerous Liaisons, Albert Nobbs) and three for Best Supporting Actress (The World According to Garp, The Big Chill, The Natural).Should Have Won For:Fatal Attraction.Maybe This Is All Punishment For:102 Dalmations.

Tom Cruise

Yeah, yeah, so he jumped on Oprah's couch. But you know what? He's the best bigger-than-life movie star we've got right now. He's funny, charming, hangs off the sides of planes, and can have us at "hello." If Cruise ascends to his next level of existence without at least an honorary statue, then the Academy is just another secretive organization of questionable ethics.

Nominations: Two for Best Actor (Born on the Fourth of July, Jerry Maguire) and one for Best Supporting Actor (Magnolia).Should Have Won For:Magnolia.Maybe This Is All Punishment For: We're not getting into all that.

Roger Deakins

Only movie snobs know cinematographer's names, except for one or two exceptions. Deakins, the British-born director of photography with 75 credits to his name, has worked with some of the greatest filmmakers of the day and crafted images that will remain iconic long after many others have faded. He's nominated this year for Sicario but is all-but-assured to lose to Emmanuel Lubezki's work for The Revenant. This keeps happening to the 66 year-old legend – let's not screw it up next year.

Nominations: 13 for Best Cinematographer (The Shawshank Redemption [pictured above], Fargo, Kundun, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Man Who Wasn't There, No Country For Old Men, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Reader, True Grit, Skyfall, Prisoners, Unbroken, Sicario).Should Have Won For:Skyfall.Maybe This Is All Punishment For:The Village.

James Dean

The physical embodiment of all that was slowly boiling beneath the surface of the Eisenhower era, James Dean was — and in many ways, still is — the face of youth rebellion. Granted, his untimely passing at the age of 24 in a car accident helped permanently cement his legacy as the kid with the red leather jacket and the insolent pout. But hey, the Academy gave a posthumous honorary award to Edward G. Robinson, and the organization could have given one to Dean years ago. Maybe such flagrant disregard for authority does have its drawbacks?

Nominations: Two for Best Actor (East of Eden, Giant).Should Have Won For:Giant.Maybe This Is All Punishment For: Living fast, dying young, being rude to Jim Backus.

Johnny Depp

Before you can get to a place where people start kvetching "remember when he was good?" status, you first have to have been good. And lest we forget, Johnny Depp has given many extraordinary performances over the years. He broke our hearts as Edward Scissorhands, made us laugh as Ed Wood and was none-too-shabby in some non-Ed roles, too. Things have gotten a little out of control in the post-Jack Sparrow environment, but don't forget all the quality work – especially since the Academy seems to have done just that.

Nominations: Three for Best Actor (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Finding Neverland, Sweeney Todd).Should Have Won For:Donnie Brasco.Maybe This Is All Punishment For: Hats, scarves and goofy facial expressions.

Harrison Ford

Ford to Academy: Drop dead! We're sure he's thinking it, as there are few other popular actors as disproportionately dissed than he. Forget winning — not one nomination for Indiana Jones, the most cinematic college professor of all time? Or for strong performances in The Fugitive or Working Girl? We know no one saw Age of Adaline, but that should have gotten him a supporting actor nod if there were justice in this or any other timeline. No wonder the dude seems so perpetually grumpy on The Tonight Show.

Nominations: One for Best Actor (Witness).Should Have Won For:Raiders of the Lost Ark.Maybe This Is All Punishment For:Cowboys and Aliens.

Mia Farrow

The Oscars and Golden Globes are not a one-to-one comparison, but consider that Mia Farrow has been nominated nine times by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The Academy has shut her out. A string of Woody Allen masterpieces in the 80s plus the iconic Rosemary's Baby, yet she's still rewarded with the full no-noms diss.

Nominations: None!Should Have Won For:Broadway Danny Rose.Maybe This Is All Punishment For:Rosemary's Baby's suggestion that an actor's success stems from Satanic pacts. She knows too much!

Samuel L. Jackson

The Cannes Film Festival actually invented an award (Best Supporting Actor) just to acknowledge Samuel L. Jackson's incredible performance in Jungle Fever, but he's received no such respect here at home. Despite appearing in some of the most popular franchises of all time and being a fount of quotables, the Academy has yet to acknowledge the greatness of this beloved entertainer. How much longer until he starts calling them out?

Nominations: One for Best Supporting Actor (Pulp Fiction).Should Have Won For:Django Unchained.Maybe This Is All Punishment For: Possibly a failure to get all of those motherfucking snakes off that motherfucking plane?

Toshiro Mifune

Even the folks who claim they don't like foreign films (really?!?) end up liking Toshiro Mifune, especially the actor's numerous collaborations with Akira Kurosawa. The star of The Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, and Rashomon could be sympathetic one minute, a steely tough guy the next, and could suggest an entire character simply by grunting and scratching his side. He was Japan's answer to both Marlon Brando and Clint Eastwood, or maybe they were Hollywood's answer to him.

Nominations: Nothing. We should all roil in dishonor.Should Have Won For:Red Beard or The Seven Samurai.Maybe This Is All Punishment For: Participating in Steven Spielberg's disastrous 1941.

Marilyn Monroe

Quick, what's the ultimate shorthand image for classic Hollywood? Okay, after Charlie Chaplin's tramp. Right, it's Marilyn Monroe's skirt blowing up in The Seven Year Itch. Despite exploiting her likeness in every cheap cineplex mural, the movie industry has given her no respect. If you think she was just curves filling out a dress, check out her comic timing in Bus Stop and (especially) Some Like It Hot. Better yet, rewatch The Misfits, which will break your heart in two. That the Academy can continue to put on their pageant each year without offering up some posthumous recognition is an outrage.

Nominations: Nothing. Nothing!!Should Have Won For:The Misfits.Maybe This Is All Punishment For: Those Kennedy rumors.

Edward Norton

He can do drama and comedy, play heroes and villains, carry indie dramas and Marvel movies … he even did an entire movie under a mask (Kingdom of Heaven), and actors hate not having you look at their face! Plus he directs. But the Academy have yet to reward Edward Norton's versatility with the gold statuette. If Mark Ruffalo gets one before him, it'll be all-out war.

Nominations: Two for Best Supporting Actor (his screen debut Primal Fear and Birdman) and one for Best Actor (American History X).Should Have Won For:American History X.Maybe This Is All Punishment For: Getting a nomination for his first picture out of the gate.

Sergio Leone

The man who made squinting cool got no love from the Academy. He had the wisdom to cast Henry Fonda as a villain, brought Ennio Morricone's themes into popular culture, cut together some of the finest gunslinger sequences in cinema — and oh, gave the world Clint Eastwood. Did he get even an honorary Oscar? No, he got a bullet in the back from those mean sumbitches and was left out in the rain to die.

Nominations: Nothing.Should Have Won For:The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.Maybe This Is All Punishment For: Proving that the Western, Hollywood's go-to genre, could be perfected by an Italian shooting in Spain.

Gary Oldman

Emerging as one of the best British actors of the 1980s with Sid and Nancy and Prick Up Your Ears, Oldman segued into Hollywood fare in supporting roles that time and again were the most electric parts of the movie. His recurring role as Jim Gordon in Christopher Nolan's Batman films is probably the best acting you'll see in the modern superhero genre. His 2011 performance as George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a master class of subtlety and that doofus Jean Dujardin won for The Artist so, come on, let's all go smash something.

Nominations: One for Best Actor (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy).Should Have Won For:Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Watch that movie a second time, it's just incredible.Maybe This Is All Punishment For:Tiptoes, in which he plays a little person with a heart of gold. You read this correctly.

Alan Rickman

Before Die Hard, many serious thespians might have rolled their eyes at playing of a crazed terrorist in an action picture. After Die Hard, they wisely recognized it was an opportunity to steal every scene. Alan Rickman was more than a villain, though. He was wonderful at drawing room comedies, in romances and tweaking sci-fi in the cult masterpiece Galaxy Quest. Good Lord, would Tumblr even exist without Severus Snape?

Nominations: Nothing.Should Have Won For: By Grabthar's Hammer, it should have been Galaxy Quest.Maybe This Is All Punishment For: Kevin Smith's Dogma.

Ridley Scott

Some artists work with paint, others with clay — Ridley Scott, however, works with beams of light pouring into rooms. Even his worst movies (and he's made some stinkers) are gorgeous to look at. But when he's got his teeth sunk into a good script, like with Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise, The Martian and yes, even The Counselor, there's no stopping him.

Nominations: Three for Best Director (Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down) and one for Producer (The Martian).Should Have Won For:Alien.Maybe This Is All Punishment For: The sappy Russell-Crowe-sips-wine drama A Good Year.

Will Smith

Will no one recognize Big Willie Weekend? This incredibly likable leading man feels like he's been one of the most reliable purveyors of quality mainstream entertainment for years. How is it that his peers have yet to reward him with the little golden man? Is someone using some futuristic flashing device to make them forget how much they love him when it comes time to vote?

Nominations: Two for Best Actor (Ali, The Pursuit of Happyness).Should Have Won For:Ali.Maybe This Is All Punishment For:Wild Wild West.

Sigourney Weaver

As time marches on it becomes clearer just how revolutionary the Sci-Fi Queen's role of Ripley in the Alien films really were, especially in James Cameron's sequel. And Weaver's dramatic turns in Death and the Maiden and The Ice Storm prove she isn't just about Hollywood blockbusters, either. We're betting she's eventually taken off this list, and not just for an honorary award.

Nominations: Two for Best Actress (Aliens, Gorillas in the Mist) and one for Best Supporting Actress (Working Girl).Should Have Won For:Aliens.Maybe This Is All Punishment For:Chappie.

Max von Sydow

When European arthouse cinema was the height of modernist intellectual topics, Max von Sydow was its face — its tormented, Nordic face. Starring in many of Ingmar Bergman's masterpieces (The Seventh Seal, Through a Glass Darkly, The Passion of Anna), Von Sydow transitioned to Hollywood by creeping us all out in The Exorcist, Flash Gordon, Minority Report, Shutter Island … the list goes on. Somehow, the actor has managed to be a go-to old man for over 40 years.

Nominations: One for Best Actor (Pelle the Conquerer) and one for Best Supporting Actor (Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close).Should Have Won For:Hannah and Her Sisters or Winter Light.Maybe This Is All Punishment For: Beating death at chess.